MLL 190 Spring 2002

STUDY SHEET FOR THE FINAL EXAM

The final exam will be given on Thursday, May 16, from 10:30 to 12:30 p.m. in the regular classroom. When you come to take the test, you should be prepared to complete the following tasks. Please remember that the test may include questions on topics other than those listed below and that you are responsible for the readings as well as the lecture material.

I. SIGNED LANGUAGE

∑ Show that a true signed language is neither a universal gestural system nor the simple transposition of a spoken language into visual signs.

∑ Show how secondary sign languages like those of the Plains Indians differ from primary sign languages.

∑ Discuss the ways in which ASL is like other human languages (power features, structure, acquisition process...).

∑ Identify the major steps in the development and use of ASL.

∑ Explain in a general way the difference between American Sign Language and manually coded forms of English, including Cued Speech.

∑ Identify the four basic articulatory parameters (primes) that structure ASL phonology.

∑ Explain some of the possible ways of defining the Deaf community.

∑ Describe the cultural/political role that ASL plays in the Deaf community.

∑ Describe Sign Writing.

∑ What is it that Wilcox and Wilcox object to when people say, ≥She speaks sign language≤?

II. ANIMAL COMMUNICATION

∑ Explain in a general way the structure and function of bee dancing (the tail-wagging dance only).

∑ Discuss the acquisition of song in birds and the evidence that some birds provide for learning and for a critical period.

∑ Explain how bee dancing and bird song are different from human language in terms of the power characteristics of language discussed in class.

∑ Describe the Clever Hans effect and its significance in animal communication research.

∑ Describe a few of the important ape language experiments (particularly Vicki, Washoe, Nim).

∑ State the areas in which trained chimps can be said to have attained something like the acquisition of human language.

∑ Discuss the areas in which trained chimps seem not to have acquired a system like human language.

∑ How might the notion of a ≥cognitive arms race≤ help explain the evolution of language, according to Pinker? What advantages did language bestow on humans?

III. NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

∑ Explain the importance of nonverbal behavior in human communication as demonstrated in the article by Riggio.

∑ Describe the three types of nonverbal communication skills identified by Riggio.

∑ Define and give examples of paralanguage, kinesics, and proxemics.

∑ Define affect displays and explain how culturally defined display rules regulate them. Give examples of social situations where such rules would be in effect.

∑ Define and give examples of emblems, illustrators, regulators, and adaptors.

∑ Show how the different style registers apply in both verbal and nonverbal communication.

∑ Give examples of the usual patterns that occur in the use of verbal and nonverbal communication between status unequals.

∑ State some of the differences between male and female nonverbal behavior that are typical in American society.

IV. ESSAY QUESTION (30% of grade)

The examination will include an essay question that will require you to synthesize the material that we have covered over the semester. In preparation for this essay, you should think about the following and plan some answers to possible questions.

∑ How are speech, nonverbal communication, sign language, and writing related in the human communicative repertory?

∑ What is distinctive about human language, when one compares it with nonverbal communication or the systems of other animals? Consider the structure of language, the power features we have discussed, the biological and cultural sides of language, etc.

∑ What is known or hypothesized about the biological foundations of language? Think about such topics as language and the brain, Chomskyπs hypotheses, pidgins and creoles, language acquisition, etc.